Three Jailed in Hwy. 97 Drug Bust, Bend Raid

Two suspected illegal immigrants were arrested and three pounds of methamphetamine worth $60,000 seized in a traffic stop Wednesday on Highway 97 south of Bend, authorities said. A subsequent raid on a northeast Bend home led to a third arrest and turned up forged government documents.

Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detectives stopped a 2003 van about two miles south of the Sunriver interchange and contacted the two men inside, Christian Baltazar-Cisneros, 36 (alias Santiago Landa-Gonzalez) and Romero Bertoldo, 28 (alias Ignacio Torres Garcia), said Lt. Ken Mannix.

Bertoldo was the subject of a lengthy CODE Team investigation into trafficking of large quantities of methamphetamine throughout Central Oregon, Mannix said.

An investigation found that Bertoldo had traveled to California and was returning to Bend with a large amount of meth, the lieutenant said. Detectives had been monitoring the two men?s travels as they headed north on Highway 97. They were arrested with assistance from Deschutes County sheriff?s deputies and Oregon State Police troopers.

A search of the van led to the seizure of about three pounds of methamphetamine, worth about $60,000 on the street, which was concealed in a way ?that would make it difficult for law enforcement to detect,? Mannix said in a news release.

Around 90 minutes after the traffic stop, detectives executed a search warrant at a home in the 2700 block of NE Rainier Drive in Bend, Mannix said. The raid resulted from information linking Bertoldo to the home.

During the raid, Alejandro Portillo-Romero, 37, was contacted and taken into custody, Mannix said. Evidence seized at the residence included forged government documents ? Mannix was unable to disclose what kind ? and evidence of meth sales and manufacturing.

Bertoldo and Baltazar-Cisneros were lodged at the county jail on drug possession, distribution and manufacture charges, while Portillo-Romero was charged with ID theft and criminal possession of a forged instrument.

While all three indicated they were Bend residents, a jail officer said they were being held Thursday for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as suspected illegal aliens.